Wheelock and Company Limited, parent of Hong Kong-based property conglomerate Wharf (Holdings) Ltd, plans to significantly expand the group's mainland operations, banking on the robust economic growth there.

Speaking at the company's interim results press conference, Stephen Ng, deputy chairman of Wheelock, said that currently, the group is developing its property businesses on the mainland through its 51 percent-owned subsidiary Wharf.

The group has already set a target for Wharf,which is, half of its asset portfolio will be on the mainland eventually, he said.

"By the end of June, Wharf's assets on the mainland accounted for 37 percent of its total assets," Ng said, adding that during the past few years, the group has invested over HK$100 billion on the mainland property market.

In the first half of this year, slightly over 40 percent of Wharf's revenue was from mainland properties. Wharf's property sales on the mainland reached 10 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) so far this year, which means the company has already met its annual sales target. The property conglomerate has set its contract sales target for this year at 12.7 billion yuan, the same as last year's sales figure.

CITIC Securities International analyst Adrian Ngan said in a report that Wharf's property development on the mainland has entered into its "harvesting period".

"The performance of Wharf's mainland property sales exceeded our and market forecasts, reflecting the company's ability to smoothly execute sales of its mainland residential development projects," said Ngan.

Ngan pointed out that as at the end of June, Wharf had a net order book of 14.2 billion yuan from the mainland, which would be realised over the next 12 to 18 months.

Meanwhile, Wheelock is also stepping up on its property development in Hong Kong.

The company's vice-chairman, Stewart Leung said that Wheelock will increase its annual completed gross floor area to 1 million square feet, which will account for 12 to 15 percent of market share in Hong Kong.

Leung pointed out that the company has 6.6 million square feet of land bank in Hong Kong, which will be enough to support its development for the next four years.

"We will also actively participate in land auctions in Hong Kong and keep increasing our investment in the city's property market," said Leung.

He stressed that the company has great confidence in the city's property market, as he believes that Hong Kong government will not introduce stringent measures to combat the real-estate market.

sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 08/25/2012 page2)